Spice

The Spice Girls burst out of the box with their candy-coated, sisters-before-misters debut, a welcome cartoon-colored pop-rocks respite from the angsty singer-songwriters and post-grunge rockers of the day. For some, the Girls' prefab, mini-backpacks-and-baby-doll-dresses approach to feminism never sat quite right: were they offering a positive image for young girls, or just zig-a-zig-aahhhing their way into a marketing niche? But the idea that pop music could be fun, female-friendly, and not completely obsessed with pleasing dudes undeniably permeates much of this undeniably infectious album.